As you know, a variety of objects can be considered weapons in New Jersey. The most obvious are guns, but other items can be weapons, too, including knives, baseball bats, sticks and even counterfeit guns that can't fire bullets can, in some situations, be considered a weapon if there's an intent on the part of the person brandishing the item to inflict bodily harm.
Of course, when there's an allegation of homicide involved, the use of a weapon can simply time to an already long sentence if the accused is convicted.
Bergen County prosecutors say law enforcement officials have in custody a 49-year-old man who faces those sorts of very serious allegations. Police are charging him with stabbing his 52-year-old Lyndhurst neighbor to death.
She was found dead in her home Monday with multiple stab wounds.
At about 5 p.m., police went to the apartment building on Page Avenue where the woman lived. Apparently another tenant had called and asked police to check on her.
When police arrived, they found the woman's body, they said.
That night and early into yesterday morning, officers told a local TV station that they searched the apartment and surrounding areas for evidence.
Investigators say that they found evidence pointing them towards the woman's neighbor, with whom she'd apparently been involved in some sort of dispute on Monday.
Prosecutors now claim that after the man stabbed the woman to death, he soaked the clothes and shoes he wore in bleach in order to eliminate evidence.
The TV station reports, rather cryptically, that the woman led "a troubled life and was taken to the Bergen Regional Medical Center more than once after cops were called to her home."
The accused should discuss the facts of his case, as well as his rights
and legal options, with a criminal defense attorney before he speaks to
prosecutors about the case.
Source: WPIX:
"Fatal Stabbing in Lyndhurst, NJ," Mike Gilliam, March 6, 2012